God's Man

Here is a collection of messages that I have given since returning to MD. These were all given at Living Hope Church which is our home church.

This is a simulpost from over at Letters To My Wife. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Esther Challenge I have been holding onto this for a few months and have been trying to avoid it because, frankly it scares me. Late last year while I was studying I was taken to that well known passage from the book of Esther Chapter 7 versus 1-2. So the king and Haman went to dinner with Queen Esther. At this second dinner, while they were drinking wine the king again asked, " Queen Esther, what would you like? Half of my kingdom! Just ask and it's yours. " - Message Translation I always wonder what was it about Esther that made the King want be OK with giving up everything. Was it her beauty? Was it her intelligence? Was it her skills in the kitchen? Was it her skills in the bedroom? Whatever the reason, Xerxes was comfortable with whatever he thought Esther might ask that he gave her a blank check. So I am going to go out on a limb and take a chance just like Xerx

Found this today as I was getting ready for planning sessions.  It is amazing to me that things that I read in my teens that had little to no impact have such a greater impact on me now.  Are you alive today?   - Just Me   “I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live. You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand. Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but

Here are the notes from the message I gave today at Living Hope Church . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Welcome to 2010! A new year... A new decade... How did you celebrate, recognize, honor 2010? Were you one of the revelers in Times Square? Did you watch the revelers on TV? Did you attend a watch night service or some other church activity? Regardless of how you spent that night, my question is what are you going to do now? What Will You Do With This Year? What Does A New Year Mean To You Anyway? A New Opportunity... A Second Chance... A Fresh Start... I have enjoyed watching my online friends as the end of the year came. Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs were discussing what 2009 meant and they looked with longing at 2010 as a new beginning. Some recounted what took place in 2009, one blogger friend went back over the last decade and determined that it really didn't go that great for her. However the new year presented a chance at a fresh start. Today I want to share with you so

Genesis 1 The Beginning 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was a]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[ a ] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. 6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. 9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let